Heroes Are Made (2)
Experience points had long since been filled to the brim.
The golden light bursting from Park Deokgu’s body was so blinding I could barely keep my eyes open.
Watching him now, I felt a strange swell of pride, as if I were seeing my own transformation all over again when I first became the Dragon Alchemist.
I did it!! Shit!!
Of course I’d been worried, in the back of my mind, that all this planning and staging might end up meaning nothing.
But the way things were wrapping up now was better than I’d ever imagined.
Truthfully, if I hadn’t seen the Black World with Kasugano Yuno, I never would’ve even come up with this plan in the first place.
What had caught my eye back then was the fact that, in the midst of that storm of magic and arrows, Park Deokgu had thrown himself over me and somehow the Lee Kiyoung of the Black World had survived.
Of course, it was undeniable that he had a sturdy body. Even now, his endurance and stamina were both excellent.
But that didn’t mean Park Deokgu could save someone from this side of the world.
No matter how tough he was, flesh and bone were still flesh and bone. The fact that he had been able to protect me in the gaps between the countless spells that had swept the city clean away had little to do with something as simple as a miracle.
Maybe the same thing would have happened back then, too.
If my theory was right, then he’d had that possibility from the very beginning.
Even as he took Park Yeonju’s sword on his shield, the light showed no sign of fading, which was only natural.
Only after the painful brightness finally ebbed away could I properly check Park Deokgu’s status window.
Good!
[Checking the player Park Deokgu’s status window and talent values.]
[Name - Park Deokgu]
[Title - None. You’ll have to try a little harder.]
[Age - 23]
[Disposition - A simpleminded zealot]
[Class - Shield of Conviction - Legendary grade]
[Class Effect - Learned Basic Swordsmanship Knowledge]
[Class Effect - Learned Basic Shield Techniques Knowledge]
[Class Effect - Learned Intermediate Shield Techniques Knowledge]
[Class Effect - Learned Advanced Shield Techniques Knowledge]
[Class Effect - Learned Advanced Mana Operation Knowledge]
[Attributes]
[Strength - 70 / Growth Limit: Heroic or higher]
[Agility - 35 / Growth Limit: Rare or lower]
[Stamina - 81 / Growth Limit: Heroic or higher]
[Intelligence - 29 / Growth Limit: Rare or lower]
[Endurance - 90 / Growth Limit: Heroic or higher]
[Luck - 29 / Growth Limit: Normal or lower]
[Mana - 28 / Growth Limit: Normal or higher]
[Overall Assessment - Your Endurance stat has reached 90. Your Mana and Agility stats have still seen no meaningful growth, but your high Stamina and Endurance have excellent synergy with the Legendary class, Shield of Conviction, allowing you to grow enough to rise to the next tier. The growth limits on your Endurance and Stamina are a bit eye-catching, but since they are not marked as below the threshold, there is still room for further improvement depending on your efforts. Of course, it’ll be hell. Please don’t spare any encouragement and support.]
Holy shit... Endurance stat at ninety?
I nearly coughed from sheer disbelief.
As the overall assessment had said, the fact that one of his core stats had broken 90 meant the path to the upper ranks had opened up.
Compared to that, the rest of his attributes were embarrassing, but even so, reaching a Legendary class and an Endurance stat of 90 was undeniably significant.
And on top of that...
Advanced Mana Operation Knowledge?
Learning a high-level mana operation knowledge only possessed by people like the Park Yeonju in front of me, Cha Heera, the late Ito Souta, that old bastard Victor Hart, or Kim Hyunsung was shockingly unexpected.
Deokgu’s mana stat was only 28.
Apparently, the size or amount of mana had nothing to do with learning mana operation knowledge.
It would probably be hard for him to use right away, but there was no denying that it would help him climb the next step.
More than anything else, though, what was truly absurd was the explosive increase in his Endurance stat.
Just recently, it hadn’t even broken 80, so there was only one obvious explanation for why it had reached 90 now.
I figured he must have gotten the class-change bonus.
From ancient times, Shield of Conviction was not the name of a class, but a title bestowed to honor great warriors. Only those who cast their lives aside to protect others were granted the title of Shield of Conviction, and they were laid to rest in the Warriors’ Tomb, where they received the reverence of ancient warriors for centuries upon centuries. The will of those great heroes is inherited, and the title of Shield of Conviction is judged as the class of player Park Deokgu. Endurance increases by 15. All stats except Endurance decrease by 1. Receive the blessing of the heroes. Learn Advanced Shield Techniques. Learn Advanced Mana Operation Knowledge. As the special class effect of Shield of Conviction, the Legendary trait Sublime Sacrifice blooms.
Sublime Sacrifice - Legendary Grade
For a set period of time, you take on the external shock and damage inflicted on the chosen target.
Broken.
I’d expected something to awaken, sure, but this was just overdoing it.
An Endurance stat that had shot up by 15, plus a trait that let him take on shock and damage in someone else’s place—I couldn’t even close my mouth.
The low Agility stat that had always been holding him back was, in a sense, solved by Sublime Sacrifice.
He just had to take the damage that couldn’t reach him directly.
I didn’t know if this was the growth direction he’d wanted, but he’d now completed his class change as the finest meat shield on the entire continent.
“Uwaaaaaaah!!!!”
With a clank, a transparent shield began to form in front of my eyes. That must have been Park Deokgu’s trait, Sublime Sacrifice.
He really shouldn’t be getting hit.
Even as I cheered on his imposing display, I couldn’t help worrying about one thing.
If Park Deokgu ever found out that the black sword wasn’t actually dealing any damage, things would get very serious.
We were already in too deep, so I absolutely had to keep the fact that this was a prank hidden from him.
It wasn’t just a trait he’d gained; he was blocking Park Yeonju’s attacks, so I wasn’t taking any damage, but the moment the black sword actually pierced me, this whole hidden-camera stunt was over.
That can’t happen.
No matter how much this was for his sake, I couldn’t begin to imagine how betrayed Park Deokgu would feel.
When our eyes met, I had no choice but to keep nodding toward Park Yeonju, silently telling her to stop and disappear already.
At my gesture, Park Yeonju slowly turned her head away as well.
But unfortunately, the place her gaze landed when she turned was Kim Yeri, who was still unconscious.
Shit...
Apparently she had taken my nodding as a sign to attack Kim Yeri, because the black swords she was controlling immediately shot toward her.
Even after seeing the golden light radiating from Park Deokgu’s body, she still didn’t seem to realize that everything was already over.
Maybe because she’d been promised a meeting with Kim Hyunsung as her condition, her passion was truly on another level.
You insane bitch!
“No!!!!”
The black swords shot toward Kim Yeri in an instant.
Park Deokgu, too, looked startled and reached out, but he couldn’t make it in time.
In the end, he must have decided to trigger the trait once more, because I saw a transparent shield appear in front of the prone Kim Yeri.
Damn it!
The moment that sword touched the shield, this whole act might be exposed. Just as I was about to unleash alchemy in a hurry, what entered my line of sight was An Gimo, taking the sword in Kim Yeri’s place.
He’s still alive? That bastard!
“Nice, An Gimo...”
Apparently, by the script, he still had a little breath left in him.
I muttered it without thinking.
“Ughhh...”
“Hyung... hyung!”
“I can’t let a child... die like this.”
Even without forcing lines like that into the setup, it was dramatic and moving enough already.
Park Yeonju wasn’t the only one overflowing with passion. That bastard An Gimo was way too invested in the performance, too.
Enough already.
Too much was worse than not enough.
I understood the enthusiasm of the two actors who wanted to give Park Deokgu both heartbreak and catharsis, but watching their enthusiasm keep sailing past the danger line made me swallow hard.
Now it was really time to end this.
While Park Deokgu was distracted by An Gimo, I started making frantic okay-signs toward Park Yeonju.
At last, as if she had understood me, her head gave a small nod and came clearly into view.
Park Deokgu had become dramatically stronger.
As if he were being rewarded for all his efforts, he’d received every stat he’d been missing, along with a Legendary-grade trait and class.
And yet I didn’t think he could beat Park Yeonju.
Of course, seeing him block every attack made me wonder if he might somehow be making it work, but his role wasn’t about dueling like that. It was about protecting the rear.
Because Park Yeonju hadn’t been serious.
Rather than force a half-hearted scene where Park Yeonju looked like she was getting defeated, it was better to end things like this.
She must have thought the timing was right, too, because she slowly began to pull her body back.
Of course, if she was going to retreat, there had to be a believable reason.
As if on cue, a loud voice rang out.
Black Swan.
The rescue team had arrived to save us.
“Don’t lose them.”
“The rangers are beginning pursuit immediately.”
“The rest of you, quickly move the injured.”
Voices like that echoed from all around, and the elite rangers Black Swan prided itself on vanished after their guild master.
Priests rushed in at once, and I could see Black Swan members working feverishly to handle the situation.
Jung Hayan, who was pretending to be unconscious with a sword buried in her chest, and An Gimo, who had taken the sword meant for Kim Yeri.
Two or three priests also began to tend to Kim Yeri, who really did seem to be unconscious.
Startled by the sudden arrival of reinforcements, Park Deokgu had been staring blankly at the situation, but it didn’t take him long to recover.
One of Black Swan’s elite guild members had already opened his mouth toward the dazed man.
“Mr. Park Deokgu of Blue? I need to ask you about the circumstances of the incident.”
“W-what?”
“You can relax now.”
“H-huh? How? No, what is this?”
“We came after receiving your rescue signal.”
“Ah... ah... a rescue signal... What about hyung? Is hyung okay? And noona? What about Yeri?”
“For now, our priests are beginning treatment.”
“W-wait, let me see their faces for a sec...”
“This is an urgent situation.”
“I-I’m going with them. With them! Let go of me!”
My body was being moved into a carriage against my will. It was fairly spacious, and Kim Yeri and An Gimo were brought in one after another as well.
Seeing the carriage, which looked almost like an ambulance, I could tell Black Swan’s system was better than I’d expected.
I cracked my left eye open a little and saw Deokgu staring at us as we were carried into the carriage one by one.
Of course.
His face was a mess of snot and tears.
“Huuuuuuung... hyuuung...”
Apparently, the tears he’d been holding back had finally broken free, because he was reaching out into empty air as he watched the rest of us, the actors, being carried into the carriage.
“Huuuuung... keuuh... Noona can’t die. If she dies... no, I’m going too! I’m going too!”
It looked like he was only now realizing that everything was over.
The beasts of the brigade had fled at the sight of reinforcements, and his dying comrades were once again in front of his eyes.
“I said let go! Hyung! Hyung! Say something. Say something!”
“You mustn’t do this, Mr. Park Deokgu. The patients are in an urgent condition right now. They need to remain as stable as possible!”
“Huuuuuk... please save our hyung...”
“We’ll do our best.”
“Please save him. Please. Kehh... Yeri! Mr. An Gimo!”
“Please don’t come any closer to the carriage! They need to stay calm!”
“Huuuh... please, you have to save them. Doctor, please...”
“Yes. Trust us.”
His sobbing sounded so miserable that I felt my own eyes growing hot for no reason.
Outside, I could already hear medical workers and priests mixing their voices together as they tried to calm Park Deokgu down. Even so, there was no sign of him settling.
“Uuuhhh...”
The crying kept coming, and it was honestly getting on my nerves.
“The brigand might come back looking for the carriage. Mr. Deokgu, please focus on guarding the carriage’s safety.”
Only after that did he finally quiet down, which proved at least one thing: his sense of responsibility remained strong to the very end.
Sniffling continued outside, and once the carriage door shut, the four of us who had been lying down slowly began to sit up.
I could feel some indescribable emotion settling over all our faces.
That’s a look I know very well.
Thinking that they were now feeling the same emotions I so often did made me feel oddly moved.
On An Gimo’s face, pride at having pulled it off perfectly was mixed with something else, but that was all.
Anyone would be embarrassed after seeing a sight like that. He’d had at least a shred of conscience left in him after all.
Of the four, the most serious was Kim Yeri.
She was awake.
Kim Yeri’s face, as if deeply shocked, was stained with terrible guilt.
While the four sinners said nothing and only studied one another’s expressions, Kim Yeri’s small voice rang out inside the carriage.
“Next time... I’m not doing it. It’s too... trashy.”
“Good job... Still... it was a success.”
In that solemn atmosphere, it was hard even to get the words out.
“Mister Lee Kiyoung.”
“Yeah?”
“We did well, right?”
I gave a slight nod, but the word of approval never quite made it out of my mouth.
The sniffling from outside was still drifting in, one sob after another.
The innocent Kim Yeri still seemed unable to overcome her guilt.
For her sake, I slowly opened my mouth, and saw her quietly nod in return.
“When you live long enough, there are things you just can’t help.”
“Mm... okay...”
Even now, her face was still clouded with worry.